It is 20 years since Jon Ronson wrote Them, his eye-popping investigation into conspiracy theorists. Now, in a world awash with tales of paedophile elites and puppet masters, is he any closer to understanding it all?Last modified on Mon 12 Apr 2021 06.19 EDTNobody had ever suggested such a thing before, and the activists were working to get his books seized and destroyed. They were alarmed not just by the echoes of antisemitism but because something startling was happening. Icke was beginning to win over people who should have been on their side. I that they were “seeing an omen of the...…It is 20 years since Jon Ronson wrote Them, his eye-popping investigation into conspiracy theorists. Now, in a world awash with tales of paedophile elites and puppet masters, is he any closer to understanding it all?Last modified on Mon 12 Apr 2021 06.19 EDTNobody had ever suggested such a thing before, and the activists were working to get his books seized and destroyed. They were alarmed not just by the echoes of antisemitism but because something startling was happening. Icke was beginning to win over people who should have been on their side. I that they were “seeing an omen of the...WW…

I ’m sitting by the fireplace, as I told him I would be. This is in a café near the Mission District in San Francisco. I spot him straightaway because he looks so jumpy. He’s never talked to a journalist before. We give each other surreptitious nods. He sits down. He’s nice-looking, in his early 50s, with shaggy hair and tinted glasses.“Don’t screw me over,” he says.It’s about the first thing he says to me.He stirs his coffee. “I don’t lead a life of crime, just so you know,” he says. “You probably don’t realize that.”Then he tells me why he plotted to burn down the apartment building he...…I ’m sitting by the fireplace, as I told him I would be. This is in a café near the Mission District in San Francisco. I spot him straightaway because he looks so jumpy. He’s never talked to a journalist before. We give each other surreptitious nods. He sits down. He’s nice-looking, in his early 50s, with shaggy hair and tinted glasses.“Don’t screw me over,” he says.It’s about the first thing he says to me.He stirs his coffee. “I don’t lead a life of crime, just so you know,” he says. “You probably don’t realize that.”Then he tells me why he plotted to burn down the apartment building he...WW…